FIRST STEP... FIRST IMPRESSION...

On last Tuesday we went to the school in which we will do our practice teaching. I was the first time that I went to a private school. Before going there I had some prejudices and I wished that they would turn out to be positive when I saw the students and the teacher. Now I am happy to say that I liked the school, the teacher, and the students. First, I want to tell about the students. I was impressed with the way they were talking in the target language and the manner they talk to each other and the teacher was very impressive. They were silent while working on a task and especially I want to emphasize that they were very hardworking students. They were talking in the target language fluently. Maybe there were a lot of mistakes in their speech but nevertheless they were successful at communicating what they want to tell to their teacher or peers. Also, they were very kind to us, which was very nice for us at our first meeting with them.

As to the teacher, I can say that she was behaving as a competent teacher in the classroom. She was very confident of her abilities and thus she gave the impression that she was doing well and everything was under her control. I liked the way she was approaching towards the students and the way she was talking with the students. The students were like mature adults and the teacher was also talking to them not like fifth grade students, but as if they were adolescents. Also, I liked an expression that the teacher used in the classroom when she saw some students were talking during the tasks and it was like "be my students". I think it was very effective in terms of putting some responsibility on the students as to the operation of the classroom tasks and activities.

On the whole, I can say that I liked the school, our mentor teacher, and the students. I hope there we will gain valuable experience, which will be helpful in our future profession. With such students, we will do our best to conduct effective lessons according to their English levels. It will be different from the lessons that we had in state schools and in the process we will gain a lot of experience.